


a hero's fate

by bumblegremlin



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Inspired by The Song of Achilles, percy chooses immortality au, tsoa parallels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:34:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25055533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bumblegremlin/pseuds/bumblegremlin
Summary: “I have had many sons,” Poseidon said. “Perseus is my favourite. Do you understand this?”“Yes,” Annabeth said.“He will be a god.”
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 8
Kudos: 105





	a hero's fate

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this and posted it on tumblr months ago and forgot to post it here... whoops. Anyway this is a little fic that branches off in a different direction from the canon ending of The Last Olympian. 
> 
> There will be references to The Song of Achilles because I noticed parallels but it's not necessary to have read that to understand the fic.

When they offered Percy godhood, they gave him a week to decide.

Percy stood before the gods on Olympus, and as they promised to grant him a wish, he looked to Annabeth. Their eyes locked long enough for her to say goodbye in her head. He looked like he belonged there. He looked like a hero.

Poseidon was the one who suggested giving him a week.

Annabeth was silently grateful. For so long, she’d been preparing herself to watch him die at the hands of the prophecy. Now, she would watch her best friend, her Percy, walk out of her life forever. 

A week, she told herself. A week to say goodbye.

At camp, there was a lot of celebration mixed in with the grieving. People were clapping Percy on the shoulder and hugging Annabeth. They were treating him like a god already, and they didn’t even know. 

It hurt her to watch, but she kept her eyes on him anyway. She couldn’t look away.

It was kind of a blessing that so much was going on. It gave her time to figure out what she was going to say when they finally had a moment alone. That didn’t end up happening until much later, when the sun was getting ready to set after dinner.

Percy didn’t notice her coming up to him at first.

She took a second to memorize the way he looked in that moment. Facing away from her, alone on the steps of the dining hall, with wind from the lake blowing his hair back from his face. She wondered how he’d been able to slip away from his adoring fans. Maybe the rest of camp had finally clued in to the fact that their saviour might just want a moment’s peace after saving the world.

“I heard it was your birthday,” she said, breaking the silence.

He turned around. Annabeth’s heart did a funny dance in her chest.

Percy looked down at her secret project. A deformed blue birthday cake, with icing dripping down the sides. It wasn’t pretty, but he half-smiled anyway.

“I kind of forgot,” he admitted. 

She sat down beside him on the steps. The view from here was gorgeous, all rolling hills and glittering lake. 

“I’ve been trying to find you,” he said. “Since Olympus. I wanted to talk to you.”

Annabeth stared down at her lap. She was still exhausted from the battle, from being injured, and from Luke’s death. She wasn’t sure she could take hearing her best friend break the news that he was moving on, too, but she stayed quiet anyway. Get it over with.

“I’m not going to do it,” Percy said.

Annabeth’s eyes snapped up to his face.

She was met with sea green eyes. He had a soft smile on his face, but that was nothing compared to the cartwheels that were going on in Annabeth’s chest.

“You - what?” she stammered.

“I’m not going to be a god,” he said. “I thought about it and I don’t want it.”

“Percy…” Annabeth thought her face was going to break apart from the happiness she was feeling. For once, someone she was trying to hold on to might stay. The shreds of her restraint tried to keep her pounding heart in check.

“It’s not that simple,” she said weakly. 

“Yeah, it is,” he said. “I was thinking about what Nico told me about my mortality, and who kept me human… and when the gods offered me immortality I thought that I didn’t want things to be the same forever. I think that…” He looked at her nervously. “I think we could make something better.”

He was blushing. Annabeth didn’t hold back her smile. She let herself think about exactly how much she loved this boy.

And she got to keep him.

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. It was perfect. And when their friends found them and threw them in the lake for good measure…

Well, it was pretty much the best underwater kiss of all time.

***

Annabeth was standing in the sand where the lake lapped onto the shore of Camp Half-Blood.

It was a dream, and it wasn’t. The sky was dark, and the only light was moonlight reflecting off the shimmering water. Before she even looked, Annabeth knew who would be standing in front of her.

Knee-deep in the glittering lake was Percy’s father. Poseidon, god of the sea.

Annabeth stayed still. The only god she’d ever been alone with was her mother. She could feel the same power radiating off of Poseidon as it had Athena, except this time, she didn’t have the protection of being his child. He wasn’t here for her.

When he spoke, his voice was deep. It sounded like the whole lake was speaking for him.

“I have had many sons,” Poseidon said. “Perseus is my favourite. Do you understand this?”

“Yes,” Annabeth said.

“He will be a god.”

His expression was stormy. Annabeth had seen a similar brooding look on his son’s face, but it didn’t seem nearly as thoughtful on Poseidon as it did on Percy. 

Annabeth understood why he was here. It had everything to do with what Percy had told her earlier that day, about Annabeth and his mortality. She held him here. He was a hero of the ages, and he had the rare chance to leave his human life behind and walk amongst the gods, but he wouldn’t if she gave him a reason to stay.

Poseidon and Annabeth faced each other. He looked at her like she was Eurydice, damning Orpheus. She felt like Patroclus, standing before Thetis and loving her son, even if it meant tragedy.

“He said he doesn’t want it,” Annabeth said.

“I will speak to him,” Poseidon promised. 

He wouldn’t change his mind just like that. They both knew it.

“You are mortal,” Poseidon said, “and soon enough you will die. Your soul will go to Hades’ realm and everything living about you on this earth will fade away. If you’re lucky, you will build something that outlives you.”

Annabeth swallowed.

“Perseus is not like you. He is the greatest hero since Achilles. He is meant to live in my court with me, and have the glory he deserves. If he stays with you, he will suffer your fate, and it will be because of you.”

Annabeth imagined it. She didn’t doubt that Percy could be a god. She’d seen it that morning on Olympus, the way his skin practically shone gold, the way he’d looked just like one of the heroes from the myths. If he’d been born in Ancient Greece, he would have been. Poseidon wanted him to shed every injury and weakness, to leave behind human suffering and take up the potential that he’d only just barely begun to unlock.

It was tempting. But she couldn’t help but think about the good parts of being human. When they’d kissed in the lake, she’d pictured movie dates and holding hands and coming back to camp next year as something new.

Would he lose that if he became a god? Whatever future they had, she wouldn’t be a part of his anymore.

But what future did Annabeth have, really. She’d seen the underworld. It seemed so far away, but it wasn’t, not compared to the life of a god. She thought of her bright, beautiful Percy fading away into one of the ashy figures in the fields of Asphodel. It was terrible.

“I will not have you stand in the way,” Poseidon told her. “If you truly love him, you will let him leave you behind.”

Annabeth’s eyes filled with tears. 

She didn’t want to let him go. He was hers. When she had nothing, she still had Percy. She wanted to tell the god of the sea to stick it, right then and there, even if it meant he destroyed her for her impudence. 

Another part of her knew what it meant that Poseidon had come to her. 

He was one of the most powerful gods on Olympus and even he couldn’t force Percy to become a god without his consent. No, he had to appear before a mortal girl, his rival’s daughter, and plead her not to drag his beloved son down with her. Poseidon was intimidating, almost threatening, but underneath all of that he was helpless.

_ He is my favourite.  _

Annabeth wasn’t Athena’s favourite. Would her mother lower herself for her like this?

Poseidon was right. Percy wasn’t like her.

Annabeth forced her voice to be steady when she said, “What do you want me to do?” She already knew the answer.

Afterwards, the vision faded, and Annabeth was left alone and miserable in her bunk. She cried the rest of the night, silently, so that she didn’t wake her siblings. It was a silent battle with herself all the way until sunrise, what she would do. Gods didn’t make appearances lightly, especially not one of the big three. But in the end, she didn’t need the threat to decide.

She thought of Achilles. Of Patroclus. Every hero's fate.

In the morning, her eyes were dry. She brushed her hair and found Percy Jackson and told him that she wanted him to be something permanent. Something great.

His father must have come to him, too, because he didn’t argue.

It would be selfish to keep him, she told herself. And if they both felt like they’d lost something, that was to be expected.

After all, no one is ever famous  _ and  _ happy.

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on tumblr! my pjo/classics blog is @katiegardener


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